Adena wrote:At some point during the fourth set of lunges, I broke my butt! Luckily, my powerlifter friend was there to show me how to use a foam roller. It's pretty much what it looks like. It worked really well, too.

Learn to love the foam roller (as well as tennis balls, great for small target areas that need some loosening), both will get those knots and kinks worked out like nothing else!

"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

It's pretty amazing, it doesn't look like much, but it worked like a charm. I heard they hurt to use, but it wasn't really bad at all.

So I have a lot of things going on, I'm going to open a vegan bakery and offer some gluten free items as well. So far I have a temporary place with a commercial kitchen to use, but I'm not ready to sell items yet. It's hard to find time for a side business when you already have a full-time job! I'll make it work, though. My husband is behind me 100%, which is really encouraging. Des Moines, IA will soon have vegan gluten free desserts at local coffee shops and health food stores, if all goes as planned!

So this week would be my Deload Week, but I haven't made it in to the gym as I'm busy preparing for our international adventure next week. The husband and I are going to Istanbul and Paris for our honeymoon. We also had a blizzard here so I didn't feel safe driving more than I had to.

If I'm not on here for a couple weeks, don't worry, I'm just either touring ancient mosques/orthodox churches in Istanbul, or sipping coffee at a Parisian cafe!

Shouldn't this have been PB week? Or you still with this repeating cycles nonsense.

I just COMPLETED my PB week, if you mean the 5/3/1 week. This week of the blizzard is Deload Week, so I've been messing around with the kettle bell at home during the snowstorm. The roads are a lot better today, so I'll go to the gym and probably just do some more cardio.

Sorry to disappoint, but I know when I've reached my limits...for the moment. I'm sure I'll be a little weak when I come back after two straight weeks of vacationing, too. I might have to repeat the cycle yet again! But I can usually buckle down and start wolfing down food and lifting heavy fairly quickly, so I'll be back in the game before you know it. I don't think I'll compete until at least the state fair this summer. They have a Bench Press / Deadlift Competition that sounds sort of informal. There was one in April I was thinking about, but I think it's too soon after the vacation.

When my husband saw this he laughed and said "maybe she's being sarcastic." He's just kidding. I've been struggling with that dang bench press for months and months, but am finally starting to see a little progress. Any miniscule amount of time off equals lost strength, primarily in that lift, so I'm sure it'll sink back down after I get back from Paris. Oh well.

I'm sure we will have fun. We're super excited! I'm going to get some of those curly-toed slippers in Istanbul, I think. And plenty of Turkish Delights and falafel.

I'm back! Had an awesome time. I definitely fell in love with Istanbul. I didn't expect it to be such a comfortable place to visit. Paris was of course awesome, minus how most french food is meat and dairy focused and the smelly Metro stations, but it was all worth it to see some amazing sights. I'm glad I brought along so much food, though. I found a few pretty awesome vegan things, but definitely not enough to account for all my meals per day. The day we went to Versailles I was particularly worried because that takes about a full day, so I thought I would have to eat protein bars and larabars for my lunch, but we randomly stumbled across an organic farmer's market. There was a small stand with primarily vegan food, so I had vegan paella and a lentil quiche type thing. Such an awesome coincidence. He even had vegan pumpkin pie, but I was too full to get it.

Anyway, I'm attempting to get back into the game. So on Monday I did:

Parallel Squats:

1x5x451x5x1351x5x1551x1x175

On the last set I just felt sort of distracted and worried, so I just racked it and decided to do something a little lighter for a while.

Oly Squats:

3x5x135

Lunges with 35 lb plate held overhead:

3 sets

Tonight I will do (gulp) bench press and see how that goes. I'm attempting to get back to my normal calorie ratio, but it's a little difficult. I think next week will go a little better. Tonight is going to be rough, haha!

Well, we did some research before we left, so mostly we hunted down restaurants we found online beforehand. Once we went to Asia for dinner. Istanbul is partially in Europe and partially in Asia. The restaurant was called Ciya. My food was ok, but kind of a small portion. It was some sort of spicy bean soup. There was one restaurant close to our hotel where I got a bean dish, rice and spinach, and some eggplant thing. Very lean and healthy for a restaurant, and pretty tasty, too. That one was a good find. Lots of vegan candy, but I just wasn't in the mood. I kind of wished we had brought some Turkish delights back to the States now, but oh well. I actually think we might go back someday.

Paris was another story. I thought I was going to starve. Luckily, I brought along about fifteen boxed meals ready to eat, so I had rice and lentil thingies when we came home. Lunch was more of an issue. We did meet up with The Vegan Society of France at a Vegan bed and breakfast for Valentine's Day Dinner. We didn't stay there, we just went to their special dinner party as my Valentine's Day present. That was probably the best I had the whole time. They recommended several restaurants, but we only got to one of them and the lunch for both of us cost 50 euros!!!! So no more eating at restaurants for the remaining 1 1/2 days, haha. At least I had tons of good Parisian coffee.

We did find an organic grocery store called Naturalia online before we went. They had multiple shops all over the city. We went there for various food items as well. We rented an apartment instead of staying in a hotel, so we had a kitchenette to work with. All in all, I had fun, but was a little disappointed in the food situation in Paris.